


Sixteen Years: The Childhood of Holly Whyte

by Misedejem



Series: The childhoods of the Duchy of Eternia and Glanz Empire [3]
Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Childhood Stories, Drunken Shenanigans, F/F, F/M, Gen, Growing Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 13:33:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5587885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misedejem/pseuds/Misedejem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of it all, trying to enjoy herself was one of the things that mattered the most to her. Second only to saving lives. And alcohol. </p><p>Sixteen vignettes about Holly's life between the ages of ten and twenty six.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sixteen Years: The Childhood of Holly Whyte

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in July 2015
> 
> Important: This version is slightly edited from the versions I posted to tumblr and dA due to a timeline error I just spotted regarding the Venus Sisters. I edited some grammar mistakes as well.

10\. Injury

The snow dropped from Barras Lehr’s hand and his skin took on a sickly pallor. It was understandable. For a boy who would not stop talking about his destiny to become a warrior, the sight of blood certainly affected him more than it should. Holly reflexively placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezed it, and sent him to fetch her mother. Barras was only eight. He had time to grow accustomed to this kind of thing.

Two of the men bore cuts and scrapes themselves, but the third was in the worst condition. He didn’t look much older than twenty and was supported by the other two either side of him, his legs on the verge of giving way. Though mostly obscured by fringe, the blood covering the entire left side of his face was enough to tell her trained eyes that there was serious damage even without seeing the wound. It would probably scar. The man was laid on the dining room table, which was so worn down from years of patients being supported there that it was no longer obvious what colour it had been. Holly grabbed a mortar and pestle and began grinding herbs to apply to the wound while her mother cleaned it, paying no mind to one of the other men staring down her dress. Nothing else mattered when there was a patient in the room. Holly constantly found herself staring at the green dye in the injured man’s hair, wondering why he’d do such a thing. Dye was unheard of in Eternia.

She shook her head and checked the poultice. Holly had the skills as a medic, but she still needed to master her mother’s focus. She kept her head high.

There was still time.

11\. Lazy

“Medic in training!”

Holly looked around, but couldn’t see anybody who could have possibly called for her. Her boots scuffed the snow absent-mindedly and she crossed her arms over her chest, feeling a sudden chill. Then there was a sharp tap on her shoulder and she started, turning to meet the eyes of a boy her age, scowling behind wire-rimmed spectacles. She took a step back and tried to figure out where she had seen him before.

“You’re ignoring me,” he attempted to snap, though he was becoming flustered and his voice cracked.

Holly couldn’t repress the sharp laugh that escaped her lips as she looked him up and down. It was clear he was trying to intimidate her, though he was doing an inadequate job. He was the kind of boy she would expect her mother to fuss over; short and chubby with a childish innocence to his freckled face. There was an unnerving presence of something in his eyes though that seemed unusual for someone his age. His lightly tanned cheeks had reddened but his gaze remained firm.

“Am I?”

His face darkened even more. He could barely reply. “You are! Do you not realise you are in the way? Are you unaware of your surroundings?”

His accent was foreign. Holly scoffed. He was telling her off. Speaking to her like a superior. The cheek of it.

“What right do you have to tell me what to do?” she poked him in the chest.

His lip quivered. “Please don’t-“

“Who are you?” she dared ask, and he regained some of his calm composure.

“My name is Victor S. Court, medic, and you’re getting in the way of my father and my construction.”

The sinking feeling she always tried to repress whenever she screwed up badly took her. She tried to ignore it and proceeded to avoid Victor for the rest of the week. She’d watch the construction from the rooftops instead.

12\. Aging 

Holly lay her head on Victor’s lap, ignoring the fact that he was using her to rest his book on. It was welcome, considering she felt like somebody was repeatedly stabbing in her in the abdomen with a jagged blade. She made a mental note to drill her mother on the strongest pain killers she knew about so she could always have the ingredients on her person.

Hayreddin flexed and Barras dropped to the floor, momentarily stunned. There was an eleven-year age difference and the Caldislan shipmaster towered over Barras, with strength that the boy could never muster. Years of manual labour on the docks and while sailing had made the young man a formidable force of compact muscle. Holly found herself staring at the way his bronzed skin, shining with sweat, danced as his muscles contracted. It was mesmerising. To think that one day, Barras may look like that. Already now he was large for his age. He was broad of shoulder and was already developing a stockiness as muscles began to show on his arms and torso. A powerful figure for a ten-year-old. His face was still very boyish, with wide, excited eyes and a dorky grin. The slight gap in his teeth only added to the sweetness that allegedly only she could see. She felt her cheeks heat up to think on it, but was quickly drawn out of her trance when a particularly painful cramp wracked her whole body. She groaned.

“Oh, grow up,” Victor sighed from behind his book. Holly drove the little fingernails she had into his leg and he yelped.

He’d never understand. That was precisely why she was complaining.

13\. Snake

“She’s still breathing fast, but she’ll be alright,” Victor affirmed, descending the stairs into Holly’s basement, still wearing his robes. The asterisk glistened on his chest, but for once the girl didn’t want to rip it from him.

She let out a sigh of relief. “What happened exactly? He’s just a snake. He’s not even toxic,” she asked him, stroking the creature’s scaly head. He was small, harmless and adorable, at least in her opinion.

“Einheria suffers from acute ophidiophobia. Surely you know that?”

“O- What?”

“She’s terrified of snakes. Why do you think she never wanted to see him?” Victor looked down his nose at her, folding his arms over his chest.

Holly shrugged, but felt a deep, sinking feeling in her gut. She’d had no idea that Einheria felt that way, and she’d known her for nearly three years. It had been entirely her fault that Norbert had even got out of his room in the first place, because she hadn’t shut the door properly. If the cat had got him…

“He is cute though. Don’t you think?”

“Very much so,” he laughed, running a finger over his head gently. He got dimples when he smiled, and his voice always turned softer when he was talking to animals and children alike.

“And Barras thinks having a snake is awesome.”

“I think Barras’ exact words were: ‘I want to fight a snake.’”

Holly smiled and looked down at Norbert before placing him back on his favourite rock.

“I suppose I should apologise to Einheria…”

14\. Scum 

Holly cursed the figure her mother had given her. She pretended to be angry, but in reality she had never been more afraid in her life. “Hey beautiful!” She wanted to scream. She was fourteen. They looked forty. She shouldn't have to rely on having Barras with her to protect her from their lustful gazes. The fact that she looked older than she was wasn't a valid excuse for being ogled and objectified by a group of drunken perverts.

“Why don't you tell your mother?” Einheria asked over a mug of coffee after she complained to her.

Holly rolled her eyes. She hadn't expected anything different, it was either that or the typical ‘what were you wearing?’ remark.

“I can’t tell my mother. She’ll just get worried about me and stop me going out.” She buried her head in her hands and waited for Einheria to reply. She’d probably side with her mother; she was like a second one to her as it was. Instead, she took her by the shoulders.

“Holly, people like that are scum. Pure scum. And the thing is, people are always going to believe them over you, because that’s the kind of world we live in. You have to show you’re better than them. Let them know they’re wrong.”

Einheria hadn’t anticipated that Holly would take her words in the way she did, as she wasn’t happy when she had to come and defend her in front of the guards after Holly had assaulted and threatened the catcallers. Holly didn’t care. Standing up for herself brought with it a wave of exhilaration that she could get used to.

15\. Victor 

Somehow, Holly had got herself the reputation of being up to no good. It seemed to be a general consensus that her reasons for dating Victor were shallow, or that she had ulterior motives. Only Einheria and Barras seemed to accept that they’d been going out before he fell ill and lost a lot of weight, and that despite having been nobles in Anchiem, the Courts were far from wealthy. The only reason they looked presentable was that they were both asterisk bearers, so their clothes looked after themselves. Holly was beyond caring at this point.

It was summer, which meant the snow had thinned a great deal and that Holly could make use of her flat roof by sitting on it. Victor had set a box of chocolates before them and two steaming mugs of cocoa, and was regaling Holly with stories about the asterisks and the way the crystals worked. This used to irritate her to no end, but that was a distant memory. She loved the way his eyes lit up when he was happy. The way there was always that strand of hair that would never lie flat. How his voice went up an octave with his passions. When he wasn’t talking, she would kiss him, stroking his face which was becoming coarse as the first hints of stubble began to grow. He always had the strong smell of antiseptic clinging to him, but he tasted of fresh mint and tea. Neither of them were experienced at all. The first time they had kissed, they’d bashed their teeth together and Holly had fallen back into the snow. Holly felt that she was getting better at it after months of practise, and Victor would always be awkward with anything romantic. It was just another thing she loved about him, though it always left him frustrated, meaning he got mad sometimes, but would never lash out. When Vincent upset him and made him feel worthless, or when despite his best efforts a patient suffered. Sometimes he’d drag himself into her room and sit there for hours in silence, letting her stroke his hair. He tried to hide his tears, but it never escaped her. She had learnt that he just needed someone to be there for him.

After ten years of nobody loving the poor boy aside from the man who had turned him away, he needed a lot of affection. Holly had plenty of that.

 

16\. Sisterhood 

“You just let her get away with this!?” There was a vein standing out on Einheria’s forehead and her voice was breaking. She hadn’t quite mastered Swordmaster Kamiizumi’s art of staying deathly calm at the peak of his rage. Shouting and violent threats often proceeded her anger.

Holly put her hands up, feeling thoroughly like the victim here. She knew Einheria would blow up on Mephilia when she left, and she had every intention of hanging out of Victor’s bedroom window to listen in, as their houses were next to each other. That didn’t change the fact that Holly was merely an accomplice in this whole affair. It had been Mephilia who had suggested it, and at the end of the day…

“It’s her hair, Einheria. She can do whatever she wants with it.”

“That’s beside the point!”

“And what is the point you’re trying to make?”

“I…” Einheria faltered and Holly spotted Mephilia grinning to her out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t know.”

“So let me get this straight.” The medic seized the larger woman by the shoulders and brought her down to her eye level.

“You have no real reasons to object to Mephilia dying her hair? You’re mad about it just because?”

“I just don’t understand why…” Einheria turned to face her younger sister. Their eyes locked and Mephilia sighed. As the years went on, they began to look less and less like sisters, with Einheria being a muscular eighteen year old with an astute alertness to her and Mephilia being soft and small, just fourteen, with dreamy eyes that brimmed with knowledge. At that moment, however, you could tell they were related. They had the same quiver of their lips when they were upset, the same lines that appeared between their brows. They stared at each other, silent for a while. Mephilia twirled a strand of the mint-green hair between her fingers and broke the gaze, casting her eyes to the floor.

“I miss him Einheria. Every time I looked in the mirror, I saw him. I have tried so much to try and change that. I dressed differently… I stopped wearing my glasses and I even tried piercing my ears.” Einheria drew a sharp intake of breath at that. “Nothing helped… How am I supposed to forget father when I see him everywhere?”

Holly took that as her cue to leave, seizing her bag and letting herself out. As she went, she swore she saw Einheria fold Mephilia into her arms.

17\. Alcohol

“Reckon this is the same cell they bunged us into when we smashed up Old Man DeRosa’s ship, Dim?” Barras asked, breaking the harsh silence.

Alternis nodded. “I reckon so. Look, even the bars are a little bent where we tried to break them.”

“You think we could do it this time?”

“No! We’re going to sit here and accept our punishments like responsible adults,” Victor snapped at them through clenched teeth. It was understandable that he felt that way. Vincent had threatened to take his asterisk away for this.

A couple of hours passed before the Swordmaster arrived to deliver his judgment. Mephilia had suggested that they’d be stripped naked and sent out into the blizzard. The look on Kamiizumi’s face suggested as much. “The five of you, again?” Holly noticed that he kept his hand firmly on the hilt of his sword. As if they were going to fight back against him. “What gave you the incentive to let the Duchy down?”

“Swordmaster, I…”

“Sincerest apologies, sir. I can assure you, it’ll never happen again.”

“Dammit…”

“S-sorry sir…”

“We’re just kids,” Holly dared to argue, rising to her feet. Her head pounded and she distantly regretted the wine, but that wasn’t important at that moment. She had never seen her friends look so defeated. Alternis, the smallest and youngest, was visibly shaking. Mephilia was chewing on her lip, not making eye contact. Barras was staring at the floor. Victor shifted uncomfortably. If she had to stand up for all of them, so be it.

“’Just kids’, you say?”

“Yes, Swordmaster sir. Just kids. We’re allowed to fu- make mistakes sometimes, because we’re still growing and learning and-”

“So are you saying this will never happen again, Medic?”

Holly nodded, but inwardly scoffed. Of course she wasn’t going to heed to those words.

The Swordmaster looked off to the side. “And I suppose you’re also agreeing to clean up the mess you made and to write formal apologies to all of the Soldiers and to poor Mahzer Lee?” Barras swore under his breath, but Holly nodded nonetheless. He turned and left to fetch the key to let them out and Alternis loudly sighed in relief.

“We’ll just do it at mine next time,” Barras suggested. “My dad doesn’t give a toss.” Victor looked visibly terrified.

18\. Magic 

“No. Nooo,” Holly cooed, holding her cookie up high as the cat attempted to swipe it. She couldn’t sit anywhere in the house and eat any more, not without Norbert or one of the kittens trying to steal her food. She intended to find the cat who had impregnated hers and force the owners to take a kitten. The cat mewed and her kittens made tiny peeping sounds at her paws. She’d already sold one to Einheria, Barras and the Swordmaster, and Captain Heinkel was coming to look at one for his sister’s birthday later that day.

Her book was just getting to the good bit and she had a cat on her lap when somebody knocked at the door. Her father was out at the market and her mother was tending to the herbs in the greenhouse, so removing the content kitty was a necessary evil. She tried to wipe the cat hairs from her skirt as she went to answer it, expecting it to be Heinkel come to choose a kitten, and finding herself proven wrong. She stared, dumbfounded at the figure in the doorway.

She hadn’t seen Victor in months, not since Vincent’s funeral. He’d been looking worse for wear then, but now he was looking dreadful, despite the pristine robes of the spiritmaster keeping him well dressed. They did a poor job at hiding the fact that he’d lost weight and that he looked exhausted and pale. He forced a smile and let himself in, placing his father’s old staff with the coats.

“Victor, what…”

He’d let his hair grow out so it hung long and lank around his face, covering those blue eyes she used to lose herself in. Even obscured, she could tell he was distressed. He was biting his lip and kept fiddling with his tie as she led him into the living room and offered him a seat.

“Do you want a kitten?”

“I don’t like them,” he reminded her harshly, though did nothing to resist when one climbed on him and nestled in his lap.

“Do you want tea?” she asked tentatively.

“If you’re willing to make it.”

The knot in her chest relaxed. He wasn’t completely lost. Still, he definitely seemed distant. She hadn’t realised losing the father he never seemed to like would affect him so much.

“I suppose you want to know why I’m here,” he queried from behind his mug. Holly nodded from under her blanket of fluff as she lay on the sofa with five tiny cats crawling all over her. The younger man placed his mug down and reached into his inside pocket, pulling out a chain. There hung the yellowish hunk of crystal she had coveted for seven years.

“An asterisk? Your father’s?”

“No,” he replied. Holly noticed another chain peeking out of his shirt collar and frowned. He had two of the things? Had he not returned the White Mage asterisk to the Lord Marshal after inheriting his father’s?

“The Grand Marshal wanted to give you this, but I wanted to have the honour. You’re the best medic in the Duchy, Holly. Nobody deserves this more than you.”

She swore she felt her heart stop.

19\. Einheria

Einheria had stopped shouting at her recently. Holly had been under the impression that she was just happier now, or that she’d been taking her anger out on the poor brats that she was training in the Swordmaster’s stead. She spent two months believing this before Einheria kissed her.

The last time Holly had officially dated someone, excluding one night stands, an awkward thirteen-year-old had told her he fancied her and had asked outright if she wanted to be his girlfriend. They had broken up three years ago. This time, there had been no awkward questions. She and Einheria had been walking back into the suburbs after a night out, both tipsy from the wine. As they walked, they were seizing handfuls of snow as inconspicuously as they could and were tossing it in the direction of the other woman, giggling loudly. Einheria rarely drank, but when she did she surpassed even Holly in rowdiness. Somehow, they both ended up asleep in the Lehr’s living room. Barras had seen them and had invited them in, and they had passed out on his sofa together. He had gone to bed and had come downstairs for a glass of water (apparently), only to find the two of them “making out like a couple of d’gons mauling each other.” Neither of them remembered and neither of them brought it up again that day.

It was late evening before Holly had managed to pull Einheria away from a heated training session in Barras’ basement. She’d been growing more and more aggravated that she couldn’t remember if Barras was pulling her leg or not. To think that alcohol was the only way she could show feelings for someone who frankly she had fancied for years, come to think of it… It happened again on her doorstep. Only this time she actually remembered it, remembered the pressure of Einheria’s chapped lips on hers, the way her hands found her waist, the smell of sweat and perfume.

Oh, she’d remember that one for years.

20\. Alone 

“You hang around here a lot. Do you work here?” Praline asked as Holly painted her nails. She was barely eleven, but was tall for her age, with a round face and blonde curls. She had one of those flowery, high pitched Florem accents like Alternis and the witch. It sounded just as annoying on her, but damn could she sing.

“I’ve got nowhere else to be,” Holly admitted. “You’re just about the only person in the duchy who isn’t off in some foreign country or training.”

“I’m not in the duchy’s forces yet,” the girl squeaked. Holly shrugged.

“You will be. You’re already an asterisk bearer.” She laughed to herself. “Even Victor didn’t get his asterisk until he was twelve, and he’s the most brilliant person I’ve ever met…”

Praline’s whole face lit up at that, and Holly began to blow on the girl’s wet nails. It had been this way for weeks. Every lunch time, Praline would come to the local café to write music and would run into Holly. She’d been wary of the older woman for the first few days, but after spotting her speaking with Captain Heinkel in Central Command, she warmed up to her. They’d bonded in that time. They were both defensive soldiers, focussing on ‘buffing’ their allies. They needed a melee fighter or mage to train with, but nobody was even available for that anymore. She hadn’t seen Einheria in nearly a month. Barras had been avoiding her ever since she’d been made an asterisk bearer. Victor had been out of the country for half a year. She was… lonely. She missed talking to people her age. Praline was lovely, but she was still so innocent. She had Alternis and occasionally Mephilia, but they’d grown distant as the years went on and they, too, had become engrossed in their training.

“Why don’t you get a job?” Her mother suggested over dinner that evening. Holly rolled her eyes.

“You should,” her father agreed through a mouthful of chicken. “Go down to Central Healing Tower tomorrow, Holly. They’re bound to take you, and you’ll learn White Magic so much faster there.”

Holly furrowed her brows and stared at her plate, weighing up the pros and cons. Victor might get mad that she was invading his territory, but Victor was in Anchiem. The others would stop calling her lazy behind her back. Maybe she’d even meet an attractive medic. She could always ask Praline to sing to the patients.

At least, if she started work, she wouldn’t be alone.

21\. Regrets 

“And now she’s missing?” Victor asked sadly.

Holly nodded. “I’d hate to be the one to tell Einheria and Mephilia.”

“Did I miss anything else?” he queried after a few minutes silence.

“Eternia’s a dull place without you,” she shrugged. She swore his cheeks darkened at that, though he’d already returned from Anchiem with a deeper tan than she’d ever seen on him before. It suited him. Suited him like the straightened, albeit grey hair which he had taken to tying back with a ribbon rather than letting it fall everywhere. He’d let his beard grow a little as well. For once he actually looked his age. It was wonderful.

She hadn’t realised how much she’d missed him until he had come back. Einheria made the effort to write and Barras was always home in the evenings for her to bother. She hadn’t felt lonely for a long time, but that didn’t change the fact that she didn’t have her loser of a best friend to bother at one in the morning, who used to let her sleep on his sofa when she drank too much and who would let her slip into his office and ‘help’ him work. She’d worried about him at first when he’d left. It wasn’t long ago that he’d been at his lowest, ready and willing to die. Now he seemed much happier. That year at home had done him good. She’d missed that boyish grin.

“I’m bored, Victor. Let’s go,” the witch, Victoria, announced. Holly scowled, and Victor bit his lip, staring at the half full cup of tea, then at Holly, then at the child.

He agreed, but there was pain in his eyes. There was pain in the back of his head too, because Holly hurled the tea at him as he left her. She called him every insult she could think of. Things she would never normally say. She insulted her too. The brat. How she despised every inch of that child’s ungrateful body. He’d returned the next day to apologise, but she’d shut the door in his face. They never really spoke much after that.

22\. Flying 

“Thanks for coming with me,” Barras beamed from the ship’s wheel.

Holly nodded. The whirring of gears and the whistling of the wind amplified as the small aircraft rose from the docks, clearing the mountains and soaring amongst the clouds. Holly had only flown once before, and that had been under the cover of night when all she could see were the little pinpricks of light from the stars and candles blinking in the darkness. This time, she could see it all. There was something incredibly peaceful about watching the sun glistening on the waves as the craggy peaks of Eternia faded into history and the entire world spread out before them. It was exhilarating. For twenty-two years, she had been tied down to her family, to Eternia. For the first time ever, she had to chance to go to places she’d never been before. The cargo in the ship was to be delivered in Anchiem alone, true, but why stop there?

“I’ve never really left Eternia before.”

“Nah, me neither. This is my first flight out of the country, least that I can remember.”

Holly lounged back in her chair and took off her hat, looking about the airship. The control room alone was roomy, and airships had to be powerful and large to make it out of Eternia. It was certainly comfortable.

“You don’t have any other assignment, do you?”

“…I dunno. No?”

“So the Grand Marshal wouldn’t miss us if we didn’t come home for a month or two?” Barras shrugged his huge shoulders.

“Why?”

“I’m going to drink you under the table in every city on Luxendarc.”

23\. Exercise 

“Has the swelling gone down?” Mephilia squeaked as Holly applied a poultice to the cut on the woman’s cheek.

“It would go down faster if you let me use White Magic. It’d be as if it was never there in seconds, dear.”

“Not happening. I don’t want to associate myself with White Magic anymore. Aaa- asides from you of course!” Her hands balled into fists on the worn café table. “Not after what Victor did to us.”

Holly grimaced. “I know! I can’t believe he would do that.” She began to do her best impression of his voice, one that always made the other asterisk bearers giggle behind the spiritmaster’s back. “Mages have to do as much physical training as melee fighters if they want to stay fit, because metabolism changes. Go do the same training as Einheria, she’ll teach you.”

Mephilia scoffed, “more like break us! Just because she’s my sister doesn’t mean she won’t go easy on us. I’ve never seen him do anything either. How he stays so thin, I’ll never know.”

“He doesn’t eat.” Holly shrugged. “I don’t think I can do this Mephilia. Learning the lifestyle you love must be sacrificed for quite possibly the worst thing a human can go through just so you can keep your figure… It’s so harsh…” “We either suffer by being fit or suffer by being unfit…” “What a tragedy we mages go through… Aaaah…”

“Holly!” Holly hadn't noticed Praline enter the café until the girl had flung her arms around her neck.

“Afternoon, dear.” Holly returned the hug, inwardly marvelling at how much she had grown. “I heard the news. When do you ship off to join the Black Blades in Eisenberg?”

“Not until the summer months. I'm going with another girl, Konoe Kikyo. Oh! What’s the matter, you look tired?”

Holly explained her case, feeling the girl judging her. She'd probably join the legions of other commanders calling her ‘lazy’. Like all her friends.

“I see… Um… Hey, have you ever tried dancing?” Holly and Mephilia exchanged wary glances, but Praline just beamed. “Ooh, it's really fun and you’ll definitely forget its exercise.”

“…”

The young performer pouted and stomped her foot impatiently.

“Holly Whyte, you will let me teach you to dance!” Holly beamed at her confidence. Perhaps, if she accepted, it would rub off on Mephilia and the three of them could collectively punch Victor in the face.

24\. Barras 

Holly rolled over and buried her face into the pillow, trying to hide her grinning. Beside her, Barras snored loudly, but it was a sound she was largely immune to. For the first night out in years, both of them had stayed sober, and for the first night out in years it was out of choice. They weren't officially dating, not by any means. Holly didn't want to date again, not while she was having so much fun being single. It felt liberating, and frankly the thought of falling for her closest friend seemed foreign. Whether or not she had loved Victor and Einheria was up for debate, but she was sure even the most passionate of lovemaking with Barras did not insinuate any romantic connotations. He was the boy who had met her when she was just seven, who had tried to attack the older children who were causing her grief. She had stitched him back up when he lost. He had a boyish grin, gap toothed and dimpled. He still had that cheeky appearance even now, when he was a block of rippling muscle. Being a soldier had changed everybody, but he was still the boy she was best friends with. Even if he was an overgrown child and didn't understand that shouting when she had a hangover was not a good idea. Nothing would change the way they were.

She assumed.

25\. Sky Knight

Holly had known the Council of Six all her teenage years, and personally at that. Just last week, she'd been drinking wine with Victor on her balcony. She hadn't, however, set foot in the Council chamber before. It was a hollow room, and she became incredibly aware of how loud her heels were on the stone tiles. It was… Unnerving. The witch was watching her, those big, brown eyes narrowing as she approached the council. How she wanted Ominas to set her on fire. Holly had bitten her nails down to stubs waiting outside the elevator to the fiftieth floor of Central Command, and even her fellow guards, Heinkel, Barras and Crowe, looked nervous, despite lacking any telling quips to imply such a thing. Why had the Grand Marshal called his personal guard to the Council? Were they being relieved? She didn't think she could take going back to Central Healing Tower now Praline was at war in Eisenberg and Victor was on the Council. Loneliness among the sick was harrowing. The four asterisk bearers cupped their right hands on their chests and bowed. The Council rose to their feet.

“As you know, the Duchy has divisions placed in all the major cities on Luxendarc, spreading anti-crystalism to quell the corrupt Orthodoxy ways.” The grand marshal began, sounding almost mournful of his endangered men overseas. “However, due to lacking a Crystal temple and any key Crystallist movements, we have since left Caldisla unmanned.”

Holly’s breath caught in her throat. He wasn't… Surely not?

“But… Times are changing. For reasons I am not at liberty to divulge, Eternians intervention in Caldisla is required. And so, I entrust the four of you to this task.”

Crowe audibly gasped and Barras grabbed Holly’s wrist. She started, but did not pull away.

“From henceforth, you will be the commanders of the fourth division of the Eternian forces. As qualified pilots, you will take Caldisla by the air. You will be known as the Knights of the Eternian Sky!”

26\. Hero

_‘Just imagine what would have happened if Victor hadn't convinced you to learn Time Magic with him.’_ Holly convulsively traced a hand over the scar that now ran from her naval to her hip. Without reraise, she would be dead. Flat out dead. Killed at the hands of a country bumpkin and a Vestal. An ugly scar was better than being dead. She wasn't quite ready for that yet. The Vestal believed the Sky Knights dead when Holly and Barras had snuck aboard the Eschalot, having left Captain Heinkel and Crowe in intensive care. They would be dead too, if it weren't for her. Hero, they called the two of them. Holly was wearing a shiny badge even now though it was partially covered by the black veil she wore. She couldn't deny that she and Barras deserved it.

They had trailed the Vestal everywhere, undoing the carnage she left behind. They left a child for dead, the old commander she had crushed on, the King she owed her life too. Watching him sobbing now, beguiled with woe, she was glad she had thanked him then and there. It would add insult to injury to thank him now, given the circumstances. She had shed a few tears herself when she dragged Einheria back from the cusp of death. Holding the woman she held dear in her arms, fearing her too far gone to save, had torn her apart. Even more so when she returned a tearful and fragile older sister to her siblings, watching them embrace and choke on tears of elation and relief. And so it went on, rescuing her comrades in arms from miserable deaths. Even the scum, DeRosa and Dr. Qada, deserved a second chance. All these people… All the faces she had grown up respecting and loving, all the individuals who mattered to so many… They would all be dead at the hands of the Vestal of Wind. Holly removed her badge, gulping as a tear landed on it. Sure, she was a hero. She deserved to be commemorated for it… But… She had her reward. She had her loved ones still besides her. And so did Barras and Einheria and so many others… She didn't need a piece of metal to show it. She could give it to the King who had been gracious enough to share his magic with the younger mages. Without him, she wouldn't be here. Yet… He didn't pass the spell onto her. He hadn't kept her motivated to learn the magic she had needed to survive over the years, pulling her away from the traditional healing that would have been useless in the past months. All that was Victor.

“Here, Victor. This is for you. You deserve this more than I…” Tears joined the tiny, metal pin as she placed it with him.

Atop the lid of the coffin containing the body of the one friend she hadn't managed to save.


End file.
